Americans everywhere have grown to rely on all the wonderful things energy provides them. From powering our laptops and cell phones to keeping us cool in the summertime, we love what energy does for us. It’s a fact that fossil fuels — our dominant energy supplier — make our lives better.

Unfortunately, too many Americans are unaware of how our energy is produced, and don’t think about how electricity arrived at their light switch or the wall outlet. This disconnect created between producers and consumers has led to a lack of basic information about the risks and benefits of energy production. Broadening that disconnect are false accusations and misleading information about how oil and natural gas is produced. Those with radical views often gain attention through sensational claims and dominate the public dialogue. Admittedly, the oil and natural gas industry needs to do a better job explaining the process and engaging the public.

Knowing that, Western Energy Alliance launched a comprehensive public opinion research study to better understand what Americans voters think about our industry, the products we produce and how we produce them. Our objectives were rather straight forward as we hired a polling firm to survey 1,000 voters to find out what they know about energy development and regulations currently in place to protect their health and safety. With the accusations lobbed at our industry nearly every day, the positive support we found surprised even us.Read more…

Probably no one has a greater stake in protecting Colorado’s environment than do those who live closest to the land: the farmers, ranchers and others who work in and around agriculture, as well as the many Coloradans who depend on tourism and recreation in the high country and elsewhere. They appreciate firsthand how important it is to safeguard the land, water and air that sustain them.

And when it comes to meeting their energy needs in a way that is environmentally responsible, rural Coloradans have stepped up to the plate. The more than 1.2 million Coloradans who depend for their electricity on 22 nonprofit, rural electric cooperatives serving 70 percent of our state’s landscape have been striving to meet statewide standards for boosting their use of renewable energy in generating their power.

That is all the more reason why a new round of costly, onerous renewable-energy mandates now at Gov. John Hickenlooper’s desk — to be imposed by largely urban lawmakers on rural Coloradans without their consent or their meaningful input — simply makes no sense. In pursuit of a narrow political agenda serving special interests, the mandates would foist an additional burden on some of the state’s most fragile local economies with some of the most hard-pressed households and small businesses. Read more…

It was a tough decision, but in the end analysis Colorado native Harris Sherman found the tug of home too strong to resist.

The Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment for the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent a letter to President Obama Monday resigning his post.

It was a bittersweet decision, Sherman told me in an interview, because he found his work at the USDA challenging and the ability to influence policy on a broad scale satisfying.

But it was time to come home. His resignation takes effect May 8th. Sherman said rules prevent him from seeking another position while still employed by the federal government, so he is not yet sure what he’ll be doing when he returns to Colorado, though he said will pursue something in the private sector.

Sherman, who was twice the former chief of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources (once under Gov. Dick Lamm and a second time for Gov. Bill Ritter), said his four years in the nation’s capital managing 50,000 employees and a $10 billion annual budget was rewarding, but exhausting.

Sherman oversaw the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Forest Service during challenging times that included pressures from drought, forest fires, changing climate conditions and federal budget cuts.

Nevertheless, his agencies managed to take innovative and collaborative approaches on water protection, endangered species management and protecting Native American sacred sites.

Sherman has a long Colorado public service resume including having served as chairman of the Colorado Oil & Gas Commission, Commissioner of Mines, chair of the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission, and chair of the Denver Regional Air Quality Council.

He also was managing partner of the Denver Office of Arnold & Porter, an international law firm, where he specialized in natural resources, water, energy, public lands, and American Indian law.

With Colorado roots that go so deep, it’s easy to see why Sherman ultimately decided four years in Washington was enough.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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